The Mount

A Natural and Social History of Mount Noorat

Mount Noorat was the site of a ‘once noble forest’ and the home of “prolific native fauna”[1]. It was the setting for great gatherings of the Indigenous clans for trade and meetings. Author James Bonwick mentioned that the Mount stood out among the neighbouring hills in terms of the amount of natural vegetation covering it when he visited in 1857. Yet in 1893 a visitor described it as being “destitute of trees”[2]. This “bare, arid landscape of round-top hills…”[3] has a fascinating history spanning 100,000 years. It came into being through a series of volcanic eruptions. Fire-fountaining, explosions and extensive lava flows combined to form one of the most distinctive scoria cones and craters on the volcanic plains of Western Victoria in Southeastern Australia... The Mount was generously bequeathed to the local community by the Black family in 2017. The Committee of Management has made good progress since then surfacing and extending the system of walking tracks and commencing revegetation work. Since 2021 more than 1800 trees and shrubs have been planted.

[1] Frank Smith writing in the Australasian, 9 April 1921, p.58.

[2] ‘Our Agricultural Reporter’ writing in the Leader, 4 November 1893, p.6.

[3] James Golden writing in his blog, ‘View from Federal Twist’ in 2014.

Image (above) Eugene von Guerard. Crater, Mount Noorat, 26 May 1857. Volume 05: Sketchbook XXVI, No. 8 Australian. Mar-Apr, 1857, Sep-Oct, 1859. Dixson Galleries, State Library of NSW

TheMount_Natural&SocialHistory_Revised3Nov2025.pdf

TheMount_Natural&SocialHistory_Chronology_Revised_9Jul2025.pdf

The Mount

A Natural and Social History of Mount Noorat

Further Reading